Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Central Standard Time

Thanks to Fred over at Unabashedly Prep I was tipped off to Central Watch, another treasure trove of nylon watch straps. It's a little biased towards our friends with 18mm springbars, but overall a nice little selection of what can easily become your best friend this time of year. I've said it before and I'll most definitely say it again - loading up on watch straps is easily the best way to keep things fresh without having to go out and spend $200 on a shirt or new pair of pants. You can keep your wrist understated ("Hey Mom! Look, my watch strap matches my chinos!") or go for some serious pop ("Hey Mom! Look, my watch strap matches my favorite summer 40 oz!"), it doesn't really matter. Central Watch is a little on the pricey side until you realize that they are actually charging you for 5 straps. Since I am a math genius I'll go ahead and crunch the numbers for you - that's a $5.99 per strap clip. Winner winner grosgrain dinner!

11 comments:

People on the Ask Andy forum have been shopping at Central for years, and as far as I've ever read, everyone has been pretty pleased with their straps. I've never purchased from there, but I'm surprised they haven't gotten into the NATO strap game. They're just leaving money on the table right now.

I've got a set of five and I'm delighted with the colors and selection. But there are two caveats worth mentioning: you don't get a choice in buckle color and the buckles are cheap. Fortunately, I got two silver and three gold, so I just pop on a silver one whenever I need it. It gets faster with practice.

On the whole, though, I recommend Central Watch to my friends--I don't need NATO security or luxury for my Timex.

I've only used Smart Turnout and J. Crew 18mm watchbands, but the next are coming from Central Watch! Try pairing with a Wenger Terragraph (http://www.wengerna.com/terragraph-72780), a basic, east-to-read, white-face Swiss.

I have quite a few of these, I've been buying from them for awhile and they are great straps for what it's worth. Wooster, how is 14.00 per strap half the price of 5.99? You do get a set of gold and silver buckles which depending on the watch you have makes sense and you don't need a clip to hide leftover fabric when you can adjust the fabric via the buckle. I have small wrists and I adjust it so there is no leftover fabric.